Have you found yourself getting in over your head with your credit cards? If so, then you need to know you’re not alone. Roughly 39% of Americans reported having credit card debt in 2015 during a study conducted by Pew Charitable Trusts. Just because you had a little financial hiccup, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. With a little hard work, you can see your debt diminish and your credit score begin to improve. (You can see where you credit currently stands by viewing two of your scores, updated every 30 days, for free on Credit.com.)

To start this process, it’s important to do two things. First, understand that you need to make a change. No more shopping for things that you can’t afford. That will only make the problem worse. Second, you need to find a credit card that you can actually trust having in your wallet. A card that you can use to not only build better habits, but also a better credit score.

Enter secured credit cards: Secured credit cards can provide a solid failsafe for borrowers worried about running up a balance beyond what’s in their bank account, since they generally require you to put down a cash deposit that serves as your credit limit. Plus, they’re specifically geared to people with thin-to-bad credit so if you’re looking to slowly rebuild, you have a point of entry.

Remember, it’s important to read the fine print carefully before applying for a credit card. With that in mind, here are five different credit cards you can trust yourself with to consider.

A Credit Card For Every Level of Credit

1. Discover it Secured Card

Secured credit cards seldom come with a lot of the benefits you receive with an unsecured card. One of the exceptions is the Discover it Secured Card (see full review here), which actually offers cardholders rewards on purchases. When you use your card at restaurants or gas stations, you earn 2% back on your first $1,000 in combined purchases each quarter. For all other purchases, you earn 1% back. Plus, similar to other Discover credit cards, the issuer is currently matching all cash back earned by new accountholders at the end of their first year.

A minimum deposit of $200 is required to open up an account. After you have been using this credit card for a year, you will undergo monthly reviews to assess your ability to repay your debts. If you have proven yourself, then Discover can opt to move you onto a unsecured card that has more to offer.

While you will not pay an annual fee, the card comes with a pretty steep variable annual percentage rate (APR) of 23.24%. If you want to transfer a balance, the APR will be 10.99% for the first six months, and then it will switch to the standard purchase variable APR of 23.24%.

2. Capital One Secured Mastercard

While most secured credit cards require you to pay a deposit that also acts as the credit limit you receive, the Capital One Secured MasterCard is a little different. Depending on your credit score, you could receive an initial credit limit of $200 with a deposit of just $49, $99, or $200, based on your creditworthiness. If you make your first five payments on time with this no annual fee credit card, then you could be eligible to receive a higher credit limit without being required to add an additional deposit.

If you are working hard to build your credit, then an attractive feature of this card is that it reports to all three major credit bureaus. While most credit cards have started making this a normal practice, not all do.

With this card, you will receive a variable purchase and balance transfer APR of 24.99%.

3. First Progress Platinum Prestige Mastercard Secured

One of the biggest downsides to secured credit cards is that they typically come with fairly high interest rates. Not so much with the First Progress Platinum Prestige MasterCard Secured. This card has a standard purchase APR of 11.99%. Other than some of the secured cards that you can find through credit unions, this is one of the lowest rates available on a secured card. It even beats a lot of unsecured cards.

When you apply for this card you will need to put down a deposit of between $300 and $2,000. You credit limit will equal your deposit minus $44 taken out for the card’s annual fee.

4. BankAmericard Secured Credit Card

When you apply for the BankAmericard Secured Credit Card, you’ll put down a deposit of anywhere from $300 to $4,900. The bank will then determine your credit limit by factoring in your deposit, your income, and how likely it feels you are to pay back what you spend. (If you provided a deposit that exceeds this limit, the difference will be returned to you via check.) After using the card for 12 months, Bank of America will assess your account and you may be eligible to have your deposit returned while you continue to use the card.

This card doesn’t have have a standard variable APR as low as the First Progress Platinum Prestige MasterCard Secured card, but at 20.24% for purchases and balance transfers, it is slightly below a lot of other secured cards on the market. There is a $39 annual fee for this card.

5. OpenSky Secured Visa Credit Card

Like the rest of the cards mentioned, the credit limit you receive with the OpenSky Secured Visa Credit Card is directly correlated to the deposit that you put down. It can be anywhere from $200 to $3,000. You will receive a variable purchase APR rate of 17.65% and there is an annual fee of $35.

There is one thing that is a little different about this card than most: The issuer does not run a credit check, which means there will be no hard inquiry on your credit report. For someone trying to build up credit, this is a big plus.

At publishing time, the Discover it Secured, Capital One Secured MasterCard, First Progress Platinum Prestige Secured MasterCard and OpenSky Secured Visa credit cards are offered through Credit.com product pages, and Credit.com is compensated if our users apply and ultimately sign up for these cards. However, this relationship does not result in any preferential editorial treatment.

Note: It’s important to remember that interest rates, fees and terms for creditcards, loans and other financial products frequently change. As a result, rates, fees and terms for credit cards, loans and other financial products cited in these articles may have changed since the date of publication. Please be sure to verify current rates, fees and terms with creditcard issuers, banks or other financial institutions directly.

Image: microgen

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Sign up for our Credit Report Card and receive the latest tips & advice from our team of 50+ credit and money experts as well as a FREE Credit Score and action plan. Sign up now.

Sean Bryant is a Denver-based freelance writer specializing in travel, credit cards and personal finance. With nearly 10 years of writing experience, his work has appeared in many of the industries' top publications. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.

Comments on articles and responses to those comments are not provided or commissioned by a bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by a bank advertiser. It is not a bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

Please note that our comments are moderated, so it may take a little time before you see them on the page. Thanks for your patience.

Certain credit cards and other financial products mentioned in this and other sponsored content on Credit.com are Partners with Credit.com. Credit.com receives compensation if our users apply for and ultimately sign up for any financial products or cards offered.

Hello, Reader!

Thanks for checking out Credit.com. We hope you find the site and the journalism we produce useful. We wanted to take some time to tell you a bit about ourselves.

Our People

The Credit.com editorial team is staffed by a team of editors and reporters, each with many years of financial reporting experience. We’ve worked for places like the New York Times, American Banker, Frontline, TheStreet.com, Business Insider, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC and many others. We also employ a few freelancers and more than 50 contributors (these are typically subject matter experts from the worlds of finance, academia, politics, business and elsewhere).

Our Reporting

We take great pains to ensure that the articles, video and graphics you see on Credit.com are thoroughly reported and fact-checked. Each story is read by two separate editors, and we adhere to the highest editorial standards. We’re not perfect, however, and if you see something that you think is wrong, please email us at editorial team [at] credit [dot] com,

The Credit.com editorial team is committed to providing our readers and viewers with sound, well-reported and understandable information designed to inform and empower. We won’t tell you what to do. We will, however, do our best to explain the consequences of various actions, thereby arming you with the information you need to make decisions that are in your best interests. We also write about things relating to money and finance we think are interesting and want to share.

In addition to appearing on Credit.com, our articles are syndicated to dozens of other news sites. We have more than 100 partners, including MSN, ABC News, CBS News, Yahoo, Marketwatch, Scripps, Money Magazine and many others. This network operates similarly to the Associated Press or Reuters, except we focus almost exclusively on issues relating to personal finance. These are not advertorial or paid placements, rather we provide these articles to our partners in most cases for free. These relationships create more awareness of Credit.com in general and they result in more traffic to us as well.

Our Business Model

Credit.com’s journalism is largely supported by an e-commerce business model. Rather than rely on revenue from display ad impressions, Credit.com maintains a financial marketplace separate from its editorial pages. When someone navigates to those pages, and applies for a credit card, for example, Credit.com will get paid what is essentially a finder’s fee if that person ends up getting the card. That doesn’t mean, however, that our editorial decisions are informed by the products available in our marketplace. The editorial team chooses what to write about and how to write about it independently of the decisions and priorities of the business side of the company. In fact, we maintain a strict and important firewall between the editorial and business departments. Our mission as journalists is to serve the reader, not the advertiser. In that sense, we are no different from any other news organization that is supported by ad revenue.

Visitors to Credit.com are also able to register for a free Credit.com account, which gives them access to a tool called The Credit Report Card. This tool provides users with two free credit scores and a breakdown of the information in their Experian credit report, updated twice monthly. Again, this tool is entirely free, and we mention that frequently in our articles, because we think that it’s a good thing for users to have access to data like this. Separate from its educational value, there is also a business angle to the Credit Report Card. Registered users can be matched with products and services for which they are most likely to qualify. In other words, if you register and you find that your credit is less than stellar, Credit.com won’t recommend a high-end platinum credit card that requires an excellent credit score You’d likely get rejected, and that’s no good for you or Credit.com. You’d be no closer to getting a product you need, there’d be a wasted inquiry on your credit report, and Credit.com wouldn’t get paid. These are essentially what are commonly referred to as "targeted ads" in the world of the Internet. Despite all of this, however, even if you never apply for any product, the Credit Report Card will remain free, and none of this will impact how the editorial team reports on credit and credit scores.

Your Stories

Lastly, much of what we do is informed by our own experiences as well as the experiences of our readers. We want to tell your stories if you’re interested in sharing them. Please email us at story ideas [at] credit [dot] com with ideas or visit us on Facebook or Twitter.